Saturday, May 22, 2010

... and this small group of reclusive night elves are currently being farmed to within an inch of their ears. It's a Gnome eat Dwarf world in Winterspring, but despite the cutthroat competition I have been doing my bit to earn Mount #96. As you can see from my rep counter above (via the wonders of Bartender) we're past the halfway point to revered. Revered to Exalted's gonna be a push... :/

It's been pretty quiet otherwise. No ICC25 PuG for me last night, as I was on kid supervision duties, so tonight I was at a bit of a loss, especially with six people doing the Trainer Rep Grind. Hanging around in Ironforge I heard the Horde arrive in SW via Trade and take out the King. By the time they made it to Magni however, we were waiting for them...

I've wanted City Defender for quite some time, and with a raid at one point of over 30 people defending the Throne Room, it really was just a matter of time...

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I'm aware that purchasing the game via pre-order has given people a chance at a key, and I will admit I flirted briefly with the Special Edition (because of the in game pet) but at the end of the day I'm not sure it's a game I'd enjoy, as I never played the original. I suppose this will give me an opportunity to see what the thing is like. As I will be covered by an NDA, don't expect to see anything here about the game per se, but I will get a chance to see this Battle.net ID thingy that's being tested on the PTR's in action.

Needless to say, I hope being part of the Starcraft beta doesn't mean I don't get excluded for the Warcraft beta...

Monday, May 17, 2010

England won the ICC Twenty20 World Title yesterday. No, it has absolutely no relevance to anything Azeroth-related but I'm hoping it's the start of a run of good fortune that will spill over into the 2010 World Cup and beyond. It's looking like a Top Summer 'o' Sport, the perfect accompaniment to nights of mindless grinding... which means only one thing. It's that time again. Let the stupidity and mindless repetition begin!

Things to do after EPL When The Mount Dropped...

The good news is not only did I grab the Deathcharger's Reins, but I did it with time to spare on the Baron's Ultimatum ^^ That means that the Counter 'o' Doom slips around to 95/100: as you can see I'm only four achievements away from the Red Drake (if I can find enough people who'd want to help me finish Glory of the Hero of course) and I still have a fair few of the Tourney Mounts to gather... but still I will ignore the Loyal Defender and Alterac Valley Veteran points and head east, and then north... where the Frostsaber's call...

Oh look, the bloke on the big rock has some quests for me...

There were at least five of us farming this morning: I don't mind, with Rugged Leather selling for 20g a stack and dead beasts as far as the eye can see this grind is suddenly as lucrative as running Dailies. I made 300g for 90 minutes work, plus a rare pattern drop (the Whitesoul Helm) which should net a couple of hundred gold via the AH. If the prices hold for the time I work to Exalted, I'll have made enough money to probably afford to buy one of the more expensive mounts I still don't own (perhaps the dragon mount from the Wyrmrest or the flying lion that Mei Francis has in Dalagran) let's hope no-one else suddenly has the urge to join in however because hunting down the Winterfall Shamen is hard enough as it stands...

Moar Legs!

My luck in VoA has become a source of ridicule amongst certain of my Guildies. I would like to say, for the record, I am well aware of Just How Bloody Lucky I Am in VOA. The latest haul? The L270 PvP Hunter trews. That's rather ace, that is. I'm only three items away from being completely geared for Rated BG's without the need to even think about going into an Arena. Phew.

The Land of Jammy Achievings.

It is a truth rarely acknowledged that when you try for a timed achievement, you rarely get it. In this case, I was more concerned with the 5 Frosties completing Malygos for the weekly than worrying about knocking him off in under six minutes. When he went into P2 on 35% it was pretty much a done deal anyway, but I was too busy trying to remember my spell order for P3...

Money, Money, Money.

As mentioned above, the Winterspring Grind has 'lucrative' written all over it, as last night's bank alt mailbox attests (ok so I may have sneaked a couple of runs in before bedtime) The unexpected winner comes from the Shardtooth, the Bear Flank, which is pretty much a staple material for levelling from 250-300 in Cookery (if of course you're not fishing) I'm a big fan of making hay while the sun shines, so we'll see how many stacks I can sell before the market implodes...

Sunday, May 16, 2010

This week, I have been ill. There has been coughing, vomiting, sometimes both and it has not been pleasant. Even worse both occured during our 25 man PuGTastic incursion into ICC. Needless to say, there has been as much time in bed as I could manage, and today I ventured out for my first proper crack at goal progression for some time. It was, all told, a decent day.

First up, P's latest mount from the Tournamant:

It's the Exodar Elekk, incase you were in any doubt. If memory serves (and I'm that tired at this point not to fire up the game again and double check) I now posess 2/5 of the 100 Crusaders' Seal-purchased Faction mounts. We'll start again on the collection tomorrow. After this it was off to Strat again to farm until my eyes bled and I'd filled up the mailbox of a Guildie who asked for it with Runecloth. In the end, it was the second run of the night and I got the mount I have, on and off for several years, farmed for unsuccessfully:

It was the second one to drop in Guild today, one of my regular readers here also has one after (I suspect) as many runs as me to snag one. The Deathcharger's Reins are finally mine \o/